erected in new Victoria Street. Were the Pope's money to be expended in the erection of model lodging-houses in Westminster-comfortable habitations for the lately ejected poor-although contrary to the genius of his religion, it would do more to gain for it the favour of the masses of our population, than all the priests and stately edifices bestowed by Roman bounty. There is reason for gratitude, however, in finding that the evils of the present "improvement" system are receiving attention in proper quarters, thanks to the patient perseverance of the Earl of Shaftesbury; and we trust that the excellent suggestions lately made by the Marquis of Lansdowne in the House of Lords, will be carried into effect; that whenever the present dwellings of the poor are removed for the erection of new streets, it be rendered imperative, by Act of Parliament, that certain portions of the new buildings shall consist of model lodginghouses, for the comfortable accommodation of the working classes and their families. To a thoughtful mind, at all acquainted with the former condition of Westminster, a walk over the foundations of the old buildings recalls many strange and instructive associations. Surely there is no other spot on earth wherein there has been concentrated, for a long succession of years, so great an amount of daring wickedness, "murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies,"-so much suffering, cruelty, wretchedness, all that can blacken and defile humanity. "The Old Stable" still stands in the centre of the ruins, a pleasing memorial of former days, when the ragged urchins were gathered within its humble walls, with the City Missionary and a poor tinker for their only teachers. Near to it, immediately behind Old Pye Street, there formerly stood a small, narrow court, so peculiarly situated, and being of a cul de sac construction, that it seemed as if purposely adapted as a fortified refuge for robbers and outlaws. Hidden in front by the houses in Old Pye Street, and the only entrance to it being by a dark, narrow passage from the most notorious part of Duck Lane, it was never frequented by visitors "except on business." The police knew it well; but the cries of murder, and the oaths and groans of bleeding pugilists, were to them welcome intimations to get out of the way. In the top room of one of these houses lived a coiner, with his wife and two children. He also occupied the upper room of the house immediately opposite, as a wholesale warehouse and workshop. The door was so constructed, that when open to its fullest extent it was only possible to enter in a stooping posture; it was fortified from within by two strong beams, which extended from the floor to the ceiling, resting in grooves at the bottom, and fixed by strong iron bands at the top. The door itself was filled with sharp-pointed nails and pieces of iron, protruding from half an inch to an inch outwards; and as the landing at the top of the stair was dark, it seemed as completely fortified as human ingenuity, under the circumstances, could well accomplish. In the mint was erected a galvanic battery, and all the other necessary apparatus for the manufacture of counterfeit coin. In this fortified garret the father and his little boy, about twelve years of age, were busily employed, night after night, in melting down old pewter spoons and similar material, (purchased at the old iron-shops,) and converting them into beautiful and accurate imitations of the gold and silver "coins of the realm." Had he not been a drunkard, he might soon have amassed considerable wealth; for as he was known "in the trade" to make excellent coin, (of its kind,) he had seldom any difficulty in finding a ready market. Even with the aid of a galvanic battery, it is difficult to bring the counterfeit metals to an equal hardness with our genuine coins, and as this is the test to which they are usually subjected, the hardest coins are in greater demand among "the swells," and sell at a much higher rate. By the aid of his little boy, this man could with ease earn from two to four pounds per day, in sterling money, by selling his counterfeit" goods at one-third the current value, that is, at the rate of fourpence for a shilling; but he spent all in the public-house, except what was necessary for the support of his family. It is seldom that those who make superior coin circulate it themselves; it is sold only to known customers, who are understood to be "in the trade;" even now, in Westminster, a little boy, if known to be a thief, can obtain “ shilling's worth of shillings" without any difficulty. a One evening, when all was in comparative quietness, the coiner's door was surrounded by an enforcement of about twenty armed policemen, headed by an inspector, who had come for the purpose of taking him prisoner. Through a traitor-accomplice, they had obtained a full description of the place, and had laid their plans for his capture. As he was not aware of their approach, they succeeded in gaining entrance; but so desperate a struggle ensued, that single-handed he almost succeeded in overpowering them. Several shots were fired by the police, but no injury was done. At last, they succeeded in securing him, and as soon as the handcuffs were fastened, he became as quiet and docile as a child. Thinking the scuffle was ended, they were about to remove him from the house, when he raised one of his hands to his mouth, and gave a loud shrill whistle; in less than two minutes the court was filled by a gang of the most noted robbers and outlaws that ever infested the metropolis. Armed with clubs, stones, and every available weapon they could seize, they instantly fell upon the police, drove them back into the room, and threw the coiner over the stairs into the passage below; he speedily took to flight, and never stopped until he reached the river side, where he was afterwards joined by one of his comrades, who cut the handcuffs off with a file. The poor police barely escaped with their lives; some of them were greatly injured, and had to be taken home in cabs, to the high gratification of the successful combatants. While the first scuffle was taking place with the coiner, his wife ran over to "The Doctor,"* and informed him of the occurrence. He instantly went to his accomplices, who were drinking in a publichouse, (now the Pear Street Ragged Dormitory,) and said, " I say chaps, a gang of them scoundrels of police have taken Morris, over the way; surely you wont see the poor fellow served out like that." The word was enough; in less than three minutes they were all in the court as already described, just in time to accomplish their object. men. A second attempt was made to capture him, a considerable time afterwards, by Inspector Penny of the Clerkenwell force, who, at three o'clock in the morning, surrounded the door with an enforcement of fifty But the effort was equally unsuccessful, though with less injury, for the coiner got out upon the roof by a trapdoor, leaped from the top of one house to another, and was speedily beyond their reach. But on * The well-known captain of the gang. another occasion, about eleven o'clock at night, when making moulds for the coins, his door was again surrounded; on hearing the police, with the hot mould in his mouth, he leaped out at the back window into a ditch below, a distance of many fathoms, but he was instantly pursued and eventually overcome. After being securely bound, he was placed into a cab along with two policemen, but so great was the fiendish desperation with which he fought and struggled that their clothes were torn, their bodies severely bruised, and the frail cab nearly driven in pieces. He was lodged in Horsemonger Lane jail, afterwards tried, and sentenced to transportation for thirty years-fifteen years for coining, and another fifteen for "stealing the queen's property," (the handcuffs with which he escaped at the first engagement)-but the sentence was commuted to fifteen years on account of his family. After remaining in one of the provincial prisons for three years, during which he conducted himself with great propriety, he received a "ticket of leave," and was sent to the Swan River settlements. During the time he was in prison, he learned to write an excellent hand, and, if we may judge from his letters to his wife-some of which we perused-he had also repented of his former conduct, and resolved to lead a very different life. The poor boy, who was an excellent coiner, would have proved a valuable prize for the gang, but he was received into the Westminster Juvenile Refuge shortly after his father was captured, where he remained for nearly three years. He became a useful and affectionate boy, learned to see and deplore the wickedness of his father's life, and showed a becoming gratitude for being so mercifully rescued from a similar fate. Once, when speaking of their earnings, he said, "But it was a miserable life, Sir; we were always in terror. Although living at the top of the house, if we heard any one at the bottom of the stairs, father would spring to his feet, and stand listening at the door until he knew who it was." Among other modes of evading detection, they accustomed themselves to swallow the coins, which by practice they could do to a most incredible extent. He said he had known his father swallow crown pieces; on being asked how many he had taken at a time, he replied, "I never swallowed more than five or six sovereigns at a time, one after the other; but I've known father swallow seven or eight." The child was first accustomed to swallow cherry stones, then something a little larger, until by degrees he could manage the coins. After receiving a useful education, and giving satisfactory evidence of a moral improvement, he sailed for South Australia about the beginning of the present year. We have special reasons for believing that this boy, timeously rescued from a life of outlawry, will prove one of the most useful colonists that have emigrated from the Ragged Schools. Another boy and girl, children of the same parents, have also been in the Juvenile Refuge for a considerable time, and who, along with their mother, will shortly be sent out to join their father in the colonies. Part of the expense of sending out the boy will be defrayed by our own Committee, and the remainder by the Government. If no more good had ever been effected by the Juvenile Refuge than the rescuing of that hapless family from the evident ruin that awaited them, it would not have been established in vain; but the case is only one out of many others, for whom its doors of mercy have been opened when all others were shut, and who are now supporting themselves by honourable industry, instead of remaining the victims of villany and shame. JUVENILE DELINQUENCY. THE following extracts are made from the able Report, nowly published, of Captain Kincaid, the Government Inspector of Prisons for Scotland and tho north of England, and are made and sent as bearing on the great matter which is the object of your Magazine-the prevention rather than the cure of juvenile delinquency. Perth, 7th July, 1851. ZENAS. Ayr Prison.-The Chaplain states, "The prison, which is a place of punishment, should never be converted into a school-house; the great object to be achieved in the present day is the prevention of crime, not reformation from it. Let the child first be educated and trained up to take its share in the great business of life. Should he fall into some petty crime through evil counsels or inadvertence, let him be chastised by the magistrate as a father would chastise his child, or a schoolmaster his pupil, and let the prison be reserved for intractable transgressors."-Page 9. Dundee Prison." I was much surprised, on examining the Prison Register of commitments, to observe that a child named J. Sauly, ten years of age, was committed for two days, on the 18th of March last, for an assault.” Page 29. Edinburgh Prison." There has been a considerable decrease of the commitments of prisoners from fourteen to sixteen years of age, which was to be expected if Ragged Schools answered their intended purpose. The number of prisoners between fourteen and sixteen years of age, committed to the Edinburgh prison during the last three years, was : Number. 440. 361. Page 22. Inverness Prison." I observed in the Criminal Register the committal of several boys of tender years for the first time; some of their offences at the instigation of profligate parents; others the result of early neglect and want. Those of them I observed, aged respectively eleven, ten, and nine years, have all been recommitted, with a fair presumption that they will become criminals for life. Had the law permitted these jail offences to be differently dealt with, it is probable that the results would have proved more satisfactory."Page 36. Hawick Prison." On examining the Criminal Register, I observed that five boys, the youngest nine, the eldest only eleven years of age, were committed on the 20th of September, 1849, for two days each. Their offence, as explained to me by the keeper, was for stealing pears from a tree near a farmhouse."-Page 60. The Inspector, in reporting on the General Prison at Perth, observes :"I sometimes find the members of local boards contrasting unfavourably with their own prisons the number of recommittals from the General Prison, as if it were a defect in the system pursued there; but this is a fallacy. The local prisons have all got their short sentences, together with classes of persons committed for a first offence, and a large proportion of the whole who are not altogether hopeless; but in the General Prison, it may be said, there are none such, for the greater part of the adult prisoners sent there have previously run a long career in crime. They have had their minds and their constitutions already worn threadbare by vitiated habits and long previous confinements; they are as incapable of making their way in the social world as they are unfit to be received in it; in short, their connexion with it may be said to have been eternally severed before they reached the General Prison; and let the discipline be what it may, a prison is the only home that most of them are capable of looking to. "While such appears to be the helpless condition of the mass of the adult prisoners confined there, I have much satisfaction in reporting that the juvenile class have in some measure been rescued from a similar fate by the system of relaxation which you were pleased to order on my recommendation in 1847. They have now been upwards of a year in the occupation of the separate wing which had been prepared for their reception. The average daily number in the class has been forty-two. It is generally believed that about nine-tenths of our criminal population are not strictly sound in intellect, and my own observation does not permit me to doubt it; while all hope of weaning such minds from a career of crime is not therefore very encouraging, the attempt must, nevertheless, in no case be abandoned, although it is only among the youthful class that we can with any confidence look for success. The system under which they are managed in the General Prison is, by a certain amount of relaxation, to preserve the health and intellects which God has given to them unimpaired; to endeavour to instil into them a just sense of their moral and religious duties; and by combining useful labour with such an amount of penal discipline as the laws and rules permit, endeavour to make them feel that a life of honest industry is preferable to a prison. That many of them are brought to that conclusion, I have no reason to doubt; but their future depends upon the chances which await them on leaving the prison, and the care which may be taken to help them in the right path, should they have the good fortune to find it." PREMIUM ON CRIME. In these days, men and measures must be prepared for opposition.Motives, principles, tendencies, and results, must submit to examination. Under this ordeal, honesty and truth have nothing to fear. The advocates of the claims of the poor and of the oppressed are required to endure this. They must have faith in the goodness and in the importance of their labours. To no movement of the present day are such remarks more applicable, than to the effort that is making throughout the land on behalf of the destitute, demoralised, and semi-barbarised juvenile portion of our people. The work of civilization has commenced, certain reformatory efforts have been made, and steps for the prevention of future evil have been taken. The inefficiency of the present judicial mode of dealing with juvenile delinquents has become manifest, but while this work is progressing, there are not wanting opponents to scrutinise, and sometimes to calumniate the movement. Time and perseverance have effected much in the removal of objections, and though no doubt is entertained as to the final result, yet it appears necessary to give distinct consideration to one or more of those objections as they are put forth, and especially when urged by those whose position gives them weight, and whose co-operation in this important question is most desirable. One of the objections referred to is this, that such measures as are adopted in Ragged, Industrial, and Philanthropic Schools, are premiums on crime, and that the advantages offered to delinquent children would be better conferred on more deserving objects, and that the honest poor would be glad of the benefits that are lavished on the children of the destitute. This objection is certainly the most formidable that has been raised, and therefore it should receive at our hands some examination; and if this, when weighed in the balances, be found wanting in mercy, in wisdom, and in justice, then the minor points of opponents may be considered as lighter than vanity itself. That such measures are premiums on crime! What measures, let us first inquire? To teach the ignorant, to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to reform the criminal, and employ the idle? The nineteenth century is not the age of the world for discussing the propriety and duty of doing these things. Heaven and earth have declared that they are right. But, perhaps, it is observed, that the measures are not so much in fault as the selection of the objects, viz., delinquent children. We take this class because the objection then becomes the most plausible. Now, it cannot be denied that the children |